The Body Electronic: eBook Developed for Anatomy Study
Gross anatomy students at the University of Utah medical school have a leg
up on those taking similar courses around the country, thanks to one professor's
use of new content delivery technology that is making it easier for students
to review important lecture materials outside the classroom.
At Utah, the Adobe System's Inc. Acrobat eBook Reader is solving a teaching
and learning problem. Kurt Albertine, professor of pediatrics, medicine, neurobiology,
and anatomy, says, "We show a lot of important, original images—more
than 300 radiographs, photographs, and drawings—on the screen in the front
of the room during lecture. But all our students have is a set of black and
white notes with limited illustrations. They don't have copies of the images
we put up on the screen. Students can annotate the printed notes, but they have
no easy way to copy the presentation."
Taking advantage of the available eBook Reader software, Albertine, Trish G'ede,
director of Utah's Electronic Medical Education Resource Group, and her
staff are taking all of that original content and building a course eBook. They're
adding interactivity as well, including captions for figures that will appear
as mouse rollovers. Labels can also be turned off to facilitate self-assessment.
The eBook Reader offers users the opportunity to view and interact with visually
accurate representations of graphics-intensive content. Much like a PDF file,
an eBook file presents a vivid replica of a document. However, eBook technology
g'es beyond that. PDFs provide a fixed image, but eBook technology allows content
providers to build in audio, video, and interactive features. When students
open a document using eBook Reader, they have access to the formatted pages
and any bells and whistles built in. Students can highlight, annotate text,
search text, access the Web, and open an interactive dictionary. Content providers
can build in audio cues such as voice pronunciations of difficult terms. The
documents appear in all their colorful, rich font glory on two-page spreads.
The eBook Reader is a relatively new technology. Currently, about a dozen academic
institutions, including Utah, are participating in a test run of the technology.
At the same time, some publishers are using Adobe's Content Server to secure
and distribute PDF-based eBooks. The Adobe solution lets content providers encrypt
the files to sell as eBooks. The encryption protects their digital rights and
facilitates safe distribution of the material.
Albertine, who in addition to practicing and teaching medicine is an experienced
academic author, is quick to point out the pedagogical advantages of the eBook
Reader technology. "We can augment the text with descriptions, references,
and other features. This is a quantum leap forward in information delivery.
Suddenly we can create a tool that takes students at will from the big picture
to finer details."
Says G'ede, "This is an easy tool for instructors to use. If they can
make a PDF file, they can deliver eBook content to their students." Once
the base content is available as an eBook, instructors can work with information
technology staff to add levels of interactivity, audio clips, and video features.
The anatomy material went live in December. G'ede and Albertine are in the
midst of a student survey to gather reaction
to the material. So far, reaction has been positive. Students have commented
on the convenience of having access to the lecture slides outside of class.
As one student put it, it has the potential to be a "one-stop shop."
Notes the student, if it includes useful features and functionality, "the
eBook presentations could actually be all a student would have to study to do
well." They plan to have the entire set of course materials in eBook format
by the fall semester of 2002.
For more information, contact Trish G'ede at pg'ede@hsc.utah.edu.